My Best Friend Craig

This is a story of peer pressure and fear, physical strength and cowardice, teenage dreams and nightmares, and ridiculous plans and outcomes. With his outsized, alpha personality, my best friend Craig leads a ragtag gang of 13-year-old boys around by our noses. At his insistence, we run across a railroad trestle just yards ahead of a screaming train. At his dare, we lay down on an airport tarmac just feet beneath a landing plane. Why does Craig make us do such crazy things? And why in the world do we ever follow him? The answer is complicated especially when some really bad boys appear and Craig discovers that he can't push us any further.

This is a story of peer pressure and fear, physical strength and cowardice, teenage dreams and nightmares, and ridiculous plans and outcomes. With his outsized, alpha personality, my best friend Craig leads a ragtag gang of 13-year-old boys around by our noses. At his insistence, we run across a railroad trestle just yards ahead of a screaming train. At his command, we steal records from a record store. And at his dare, we sneak onto a airport tarmac and lie down on the runway just feet beneath a landing plane. Why did Craig make us do such crazy things? And why in the world did we ever follow him? The answer is complicated especially when some really bad boys appear and Craig discovers that he can't push us any further.

Richard H. Adams, Jr. has lived in Pennsylvania, California, and Virginia. He worked as a poverty researcher at the World Bank and other international organizations in Washington, DC. He has also taught at the University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University and Georgetown University. This is his fifth book and first novel.